NSW top cop calls for ice action plan

The NSW police commissioner has called for a national policing approach to combat the drug ice.Source: AAP

AUSTRALIA needs a national approach to combat the epidemic of the drug ice, says the NSW police commissioner.

"WE'VE got to stomp on this problem," Andrew Scipione told Macquarie Radio on Monday.

"The more we talk about it, the better off we'll be - you cannot over-communicate in a (nationwide) crisis. "This filthy drug doesn't discriminate. "It treats everyone equally and it's just as devastating no matter who you are or where you come from - with life-changing consequences." He said methylamphetamine, or ice, was destroying families and communities all over the country through its "creeping death". Police have discovered and dismantled more than 100 ice labs in NSW in the past 12 months. Mr Scipione said the highly addictive drug was "the worst of the worst of the worst".
It brings on "big problems" such as paranoid schizophrenia, psychotic disorder, hallucinations and aggression. "We need to fight this insidious business, we need to continue to do the raids," he said. The best way to combat its spread was to stop the drug coming into the country, Mr Scipione said. "The police are working very closely with the federal government to stop the importation of the base chemical that's used to make ice." He said most of it originated in China. Mr Scipione praised the NSW police force for last February's largest ever national seizure of ice, which recovered more than 500kg of the drug from China in Sydney, with a street value of around $450 million. He urged parents to call the police if they suspected their child was taking the drug.

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